The Red and Black wrote:(Image)
(Image)
EDITORIAL · NATIONSTATES · MILITARY · ANTIFA
This editorial is also scheduled for joint publication in Balder's regional newspaper, the Raven Post.
Ask most people inside the world of NationStates military gameplay what the fundamental dichotomy is, and they'll tell you Raiding versus Defending—giving rise to the term "R/D" as shorthand for Gameplay. Many will quickly follow up with a mention of imperialism and independents. While imperialists, independents, raiders, and defenders make up the majority of the military scene, some of us exist outside the traditional framework. For some players, the fundamental dichotomy by which we play is not rooted in natives against invaders. Instead, our battle is connected to real-world ideologies: Antifa versus Fascism.
Antifa is short for the German word "Antifaschismus," and typically refers to militant left-wing opposition. In NationStates, "Antifa" is a broad alliance of predominantly leftist regions and militaries that have united to combat fascists. Behind Antifa's actions is the theory of "No Platform." No Platform is the belief that fascists should be denied a platform from which to express their ideology of hatred and violence. By this we do not suggest that governments should prohibit fascist speech, but rather that communities should organize to kick fascists out of their neighborhoods through direct action—marching, demonstrating, and protesting against fascists directly.
In NationStates, this direct action takes the form of defending regions that come under fascist occupation and tagging, raiding, and hawking fascist home regions whenever we can. Since the major fascist regions do not have executive delegates, this war typically plays out in satellite regions, such as Antifa-aligned Leninist Russia, which was successfully defended against a Greater German Reich infiltration by The Red Fleet and its allies, or in Fascist and Imperialist Union, a bronze-level member of the former Right Wing Uprising that was originally tag raided by The MT Army, but the inactivity and eventual CTE of the founder led to it being refounded.
There is a frequent argument raised in Gameplay by players who are unfamiliar with this anti-fascist struggle that the "fascists" and "Nazis" that inhabit fascist and Nazi-themed regions are just roleplaying and are not fascists outside of NationStates. There is no mistaking that these regions are in fact inhabited by true Nazis, some of whom deny the Holocaust and spend their time arguing the finer points of National Socialist race theory. The non-fascist players and roleplayers who inhabit these regions that accept this discussion without rebuttal are just as guilty as the players posting it. Much of this discussion takes place in off-site forums, to avoid coming under the scrutiny of this website's moderation staff, which can be seen in admonitions to move racist and bigoted conversations off of the RMB in several high-profile regions.
Despite this attempt to avoid moderator action, some high-profile Nazi players have been removed from NationStates or labeled Delete On Sight. Perhaps the most notable such player is Aryan Shield Command, who was DOSed in August 2014 for posting a modified version of the Nazi anthem "Horst-Wessel-Lied" on hundreds of regions' world factbook entries, according to a post by him on the Greater German Reich RMB. The puppet sweep of ASC dismantled his "Nationalsozialistische Volksstaaten" empire of almost 900 regions, from which 750 were placed under the guardianship of The Red Fleet and North Korea. Over the past three months, 350 of these have been allowed to cease to exist, while others have been returned to verifiable non-fascist communities.
We see direct action, both "violent" (raiding) and "non-violent" (region hawking, defending), as a crucial component in the process of defeating fascism that also includes denying fascists platforms (i.e., regions) from which to spread their ideology and educating the wider NationStates community about the realities and dangers of modern fascism. Thankfully, the wider NationStates community is already opposed to fascism. For proof, you only need to look to the broad coalitions that united to drive the fash from Liberal Haven and Anne Frank and demolish Nazi Europe.
Adolf Hitler believed that the only way the rise of the Nazi party could have been prevented was if its opponents had recognized it for what it was and had from the first day fought brutally against it. As the Scottish punk band Oi Polloi put it, "For once, we agree with him. The only way to stop Nazi scum is by confronting them and literally kicking them off our streets." Antifa's soldiers and sailors work in the background, united with the common purpose of kicking fascists off the streets of NationStates to prevent the rise of fascism in this game. (Image)
(Image)
NEWS · NATIONSTATES · MILITARY · TCB
Eastern Europe, a region on the periphery of the NationStates Left, was raided on Friday by the United Imperial Armed Forces, an interregional military alliance of The New Inquisition, The Land of Kings and Emperors, and Albion—three influential imperialist monarchist regions in the Gameplay side of NationStates. Joining the raid were Balder, another monarchist region; Europeia, an "independent" region; The Black Riders and The Black Hawks, two raider organizations; and The Communist Bloc.
Eastern Europe had maintained embassies with United Sovereign Socialist Republics and The International Communist Union in the leftist sphere, as well as sharing one with the roleplay-leftist region Lazarus.
When pressed on why The Communist Bloc had engaged in a raid on a leftist region, Zenya (Zenny), who is TCB's President, "Dear Leader," and Minister for Defense, said "We do not subscribe to Leftist Unity. [Eastern Europe has] never reached out to us, I don't know them. Why should I care? They had some tags and maybe some leftists in the region? Just because you believe in the same things I do does not make you my friend or ally."
This comes as just the latest attack on a leftist region by The "Communist" Bloc. Three months ago saw TCB cooperate with Libertatem and REATO to invade the Congress of Armed Proletarian States on the pretense of it being an "authoritarian" alliance. Before that, TCB had supported a Libertatem raid on Das Kommune.
It is clear to even the most casual observer that The Communist Bloc has never seriously been interested in courting the favor of the NationStates Left community. Zenny and much of her inner circle of sycophants were, before coming to power in TCB, active in various other large communities outside of the leftist sphere of NationStates. Zenny and ModernSin (aka MSluvsZenya) were both involved in the government of Europeia. "Comrade" Anders Blakewood was involved in the leadership of monarchist regions Ainur and The Eternal Knights, before taking control of TEK's founder nation and giving it over to The Black Riders.
These people do not care about leftist unity because they are not leftists. Their goal—the goal of Zenya, MS, and Anders, and by extension the goal of The Communist Bloc—is not to build a strong communist region. Instead, they wish to build a large region that will allow them to rule over hundreds of nations and buddy-up to their old friends in the other large game-created regions like Balder and Osiris as well as their friends in the large user-created monarchist and independent regions. The Communist Bloc is not a place for leftists, it's a place for monarchists to band together with red window-dressings to play out their delusions of grandeur and entertain their hapless sycophants.
The NationStates Left community would do well to put The Communist Bloc in our rear-view mirror and move on towards unity, solidarity, and camaraderie with true leftists. Let the roleplayers in TCB play communist dollhouse without us concerning ourselves with them any longer. (Image)
(Image)
NEWS · REAL WORLD · IN MEMORY · LGBTQ · TRANS STRUGGLE
by Jackie Mautner for Liberation News
The recent death of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn has sparked discussion about the need to "fix society," in the words she used in her tragic suicide note. Her story is one that is all too common for girls like her who struggle to find acceptance among family members, friends, teachers, and of course society in general.
Her family refused to accept her for who she was, forced her into so-called Christian "conversion therapy," and even pulled her from school and isolated her from her friends for long periods of time. Even after her death, her mother continues to misgender Leelah by using the wrong name and pronouns. But as cruel as her family may seem, they are a symptom of a much larger issue—that being the society we live in, a society which treats trans people as second class, as sexual objects, and ultimately as disposable beings.
Living as a trans person isn't easy. Our families, who we might rely on for support, may be ignorant about the issues we face, or even hostile towards us. Medical professionals may not be educated about us, making visits to the hospital or clinic uncomfortable at best. Even walking outside can be dangerous as reactions vary from catcalling, being laughed at, to threats of violence that could escalate at any moment.
"The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren't treated the way I was, they're treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights," Leelah wrote. As fighters for trans liberation, it is our duty to make that dream of a better future the reality of our present. But what are the concrete ways in which we can do that right now?
Leelah offered some ideas, such as teaching about gender in schools. Schools are often the battleground where trans students are denied access to the bathroom or the sports teams that matches their identity, even despite the U.S. Department of Education's guidelines, which explicitly state that trans students are protected from sex-based discrimination under Title IX. Conservatives have often used fear mongering to try and block such protections, arguing that this would protect mischievous children who might claim to be "trans for a day." And yet that very misconception—that one could be "trans for a day"—underlines the need for education about gender in schools.
Gender education
Gender is not binary—it is not either/or—and yet we're taught from the moment we are born that there are boys and there are girls, and as we grow up we learn to differentiate the two based on certain physical characteristics. The reality is that human bodies are diverse, and people have about as many ways of identifying themselves as there are people existing in the world.
Some people are cisgender—meaning the sex they were assigned at birth (male or female) is the sex that they feel comfortable being identified as. Some people are intersex, meaning they cannot be classified as clearly male or female because their bodies may have attributes of both, or lack some characteristics considered necessary to be defined as one or the other. And still others identify as transgender, which is an umbrella term denoting a person whose gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Educating people on the diversity of gender could allow us to move beyond mere tolerance and into acceptance and even appreciation for the multitudes of gender identities and expressions. Or in the words of Leslie Feinberg, "We have a right to live openly and proudly … where our lives are suppressed, everyone is denied an understanding of the rich diversity of sex and gender expression and experience that exist in human society."
We need laws protecting us so that we may live openly and proudly. We need laws that recognize anti-trans violence as hate crimes in every state. We need laws such as the proposed Leelah's law that seeks to put a stop to Christian "conversion therapy."
We need better access to health care such as mental health care and trans health care, as well as knowledgeable medical professionals. In Cuba, trans specific health care—like all health care in that country—is completely covered.
We need to change so much, but we should also recognize that society will never change unless we use our voices to raise awareness and demand change. (Image)
Read the full article at Liberation News
(Image)
ANALYSIS · REAL WORLD · EDUCATION · POVERTY
by Cassie Regan for Liberation News
According to new analysis of 2013 school data, 51 percent of students in public schools qualify for free or reduced price lunch – the unofficial indicator of childhood poverty in the United States. This is a staggering increase since 2000 when 38 percent of children qualified for free or reduced lunch. In some states like Louisiana, New Mexico, Mississippi, the rates are much higher: 65 percent, 68 percent and 71 percent respectively.
In a total of 20 states, more than half of all public school students participate in the free or reduced lunch program. In another 16 states between 40-50 percent of its public school students participate.
States are responsible for 44 percent of their education funding. In many states this funding comes from property taxes. In areas where more people own homes and pay property taxes, there is more money for schools. In most areas this money cannot leave the district to be equitably distributed among the state. This leaves districts with a high proportion of poor families with fewer allocated resources to schools. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that 34 states are contributing less funding per student than they did prior to 2008. Despite an "improving" economy, school budgets are still being slashed as funding continues to be cut. In fact, since 2010 funding has been cut to Title 1 schools (schools with high percentages of students that qualify for free or reduced lunch).
Because of capitalist oriented education reform policies, schools in poor neighborhoods feel the ever pressing need to raise test scores to be comparable to more affluent schools. If test scores don't rise, schools lose funding or are closed.
The weight of the deficit between the needs of children and the poverty they live in has fallen on the shoulders of schools. I can always rely on high attendance when the weather is especially cold and parents know their children will be warm in my classroom. I can always rely on my students to take home whatever food we have left over from breakfast and lunch. Teachers across the country have become a vehicle for fixing the poverty epidemic essentially ignored by our government. Teachers are using their own money to buy wipes, socks, undergarments, shoes, pants, shirts, and snacks to make sure our students are clean, dressed, and fed.
We do this because we know students cannot learn if their basic needs are not met first. We do this because, as teachers, we come to love our students and their families and we want what's best for them. But we also do this because we are forced to. Teachers feel the constant weight of school "reformers" looking to undermine our ability to teach, to break our union, and privatize our schools. We know that our students cannot learn and perform if their needs are not met, and their ability to perform is the only job security a teacher has.
Education does not have to be this way. It is possible for all students to have the schools they deserve. All that is required is a government that values the lives of its people over profit and exploitation. For example, the United States spent $1.33 million every hour for Foreign Military Assistance in 2014. That money could be allocated toward schools, healthcare, jobs, food, and affordable housing. Only then, will our students come to well-funded schools, ready to learn. (Image)
Read the article at Liberation News
For other editions of the Red & Black, see our archive.
And I quote: (emphasis mine)
There is a frequent argument raised in Gameplay by players who are unfamiliar with this anti-fascist struggle that the "fascists" and "Nazis" that inhabit fascist and Nazi-themed regions are just roleplaying and are not fascists outside of NationStates. There is no mistaking that these regions are in fact inhabited by true Nazis, some of whom deny the Holocaust and spend their time arguing the finer points of National Socialist race theory. Any non-fascist players who inhabit these regions that accept this discussion without rebuttal are just as guilty as the players posting it. Much of this discussion takes place in off-site forums, to avoid coming under the scrutiny of this website's moderation staff, which can be seen in admonitions to move racist and bigoted conversations off of the RMB in several high-profile regions."
Could this not be interpreted as flaming multiple players in multiple regions at the same time? Yes I understand that some people who play Nazi's in the "game" may have those leanings in real-life. Most on the other hand are role-playing their fantasies, like the rest of us. Being accused of being a Nazi is not something to be taken lightly, as it is even illegal in some countries. Yes Misley did modify the comment some what after he was called out on it, but the basic intent still stands. I would ask the moderation team to look at this one, and if necessary ask that it be removed, simply to keep the flames from becoming an inferno.
